USE OF Count. The plain white of the marble was too dazzling and monotonous for Greek taste; moreover, when poorer materials were used the stone often required color or stucco to conceal its imperfections. Our knowledge as to the details of the coloring of the temple is not very complete, though it has been much enlarged by the careful attention paid to the subject in recent excavations. In the Doric building the triglyphs seem to have been regularly blue; the metopes vary—at Olympia they were either blue or brown, with the reliefs in contrasting colors, while elsewhere red was also used. The smaller architectural members, such as mutules, regale, and guthe, were also colored; but the walls, architrave, and columns, except possibly the neck, and sometimes the echinus, were plain. In the Ionic order color seems to have been used on the capital, but there is little knowledge of de tails.
In sculpture the question has been much dis cussed. It is clearly impossible to lay down general rules, fqr the practice varied with the time, place, material, and technique. What holds of the relief will not hold of the statue. Color was extensively used on all terra-cotta produc tions, and we have seen that it was also em ployed on sculptures forming part of a building. In general, the more valuable the material the more sparing the use of color. In the earlier works in coarse stone a very elaborate and bril liant system is used; later only the details are thus indicated. Except in architectural reliefs. there is very little evidence of the use of color on the nude parts of marble. In statues such surfaces seem to have been treated with wax and oil. thus toning down the surface of the marble and giving it a slight polish. The hair, lips, and
eyes were regularly painted. In the garments a distinction seems possible. On the Acropolis statues (see Plate) the under garment. which only shows on the shoulder and about the feet, often receives a solid color. On the other gar ments only the borders or embroidery is indicated. It seems as if the artist desired to avoid large masses of color, unless the conditions were such that. such a mass would form an effective contrast to the marble. In reliefs color is freely employed for details, and many accessories are rendered entirely in this way, especially in the earlier art, while in the Hellenistic period we find very low relief employed to assist the painter. The Greek attitude toward the use of color was very different from that which now prevails; but the statues from the Acropolis and the beautifully tinted Alexander sarcophagus at Constantinople show that Greek taste in this regard was at least as good as our own.
In sketching the history of Greek art, it is convenient to distinguish the following periods (see ARCILEOLOGY) : I. The Archaic Period, extending to about B.C. 480, the era of the Persian wars.
II. The Attic Period, from about B.C. 480 to n.c. 323, during which the centre of Greek life is Athens.
III. The Hellenistic Period, which ends with the Roman Conquest (p.c. 146).
IV. The Roman Period, which may be extended to the foundation of Constantinople (A.D. 330), though constructive Greek art ceased long be fore.
These divisions are in their nature arbitrary, and no sharp line divides one from the other.